[junkman]

I just went through similar myself, although mine was hard to push all the time. I picked up an 83, and other than an edelbrock 600 was stock. Pedal was way too stiff to drive 80miles round trip to work comfortably. After several failed attempts, what I ended up with is a lokar hot rod style universal throttle cable, then I shortened the pedal rod about an inch. I have no idea why this was so difficult to get a smooth normal feeling gas pedal, and I can't imagine it was that way from the factory. The pedal did not pull straight on the cable coming through the firewall. I tried bending the pedal every which way, but nothing looked or felt right until I just shortened the pedal.